Almost all cover versions of the song use a straight 4/4 meter throughout, while the Carter Family recording from 1927 uses bars of 3/4 near the end of each verse and twice in the chorus.

In 1988, springing from the Great Hudson River "Clearwater" Revivals (now referred to as Festivals) which Pete Seeger championed from the mid-1960s through the present, the second line of the chorus was rewritten and copyrighted by Cathy Winter, Betsy Rose, Marcia Taylor and Terry Dash as Rise Up Singing. This version has a more uplifting and forward looking message:

Will the circle be unbroken, by and by Lord by and by.
There's a better way to live now, we can have it if we try.
I was born down in the valley where the sun refused to shine
but now I'm climbing - up to the highlands - Gonna make all those mountains mine.